Industry and consumer advocacy groups continued to disagree on whether the FCC should extend certain robocall rules to all voice service providers in reply comments posted Monday in docket 17-97 (see 2305180036). Many debated the use of rich call data and the standard that should be set regarding the use of a do-not-originate (DNO) list.
An executive branch push to reclassify marijuana under less restrictive drug schedule rules is seen by broadcasters as a positive step toward allowing them to carry advertisements for cannabis and cannabis products, but the move likely wouldn’t eliminate the legal concerns about carrying ads for recreational marijuana use, attorneys told us.
A year after the FCC adopted a five-year deorbit rule for low earth orbit (LEO) satellites (see 2209290017), space regulatory experts see the rule becoming a norm for many space operators, but it's less clear if many other countries will codify it into their own rules. Getting U.S. market access means agreeing to the five-year deorbit, which makes the U.S. rule a de facto international standard in many cases, they said.
Anna Gomez, for now, remains head of the U.S. delegation to the World Radicommunication Conference, which starts Nov. 20 in Dubai, while she awaits taking office as an FCC commissioner. But doing both jobs concurrently could be difficult and would require broader agreement among federal agencies. The Senate confirmed Gomez 55-43 Thursday (see 2309070081).
California’s inadequate enforcement of telecom service quality perpetuates inequity, said Small Business Utility Advocates regulatory attorney Itzel Hayward at a California Public Utilities Commission workshop Thursday. A public advocates panel asked the CPUC for stronger penalties against carriers and to apply plain old telephone service (POTS) quality rules to VoIP, broadband and wireless services. Commissioner Darcie Houck urged parties in docket R.22-03-016 to “think outside the box.”
The FCC’s Disability Advisory Committee approved a report Thursday on best practices for implementing and promoting the use of direct video calling from its Direct Video Calling Working Group (see 2304260060). The group also heard from other working group leaders, plus updates from Commissioner Nathan Simington and FCC staff on artificial intelligence accessibility. The meeting was the first in-person meeting in three years.
The Senate Intelligence Committee plans a hearing on AI policies, potentially to address election security issues, Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., told us Wednesday. Election security and public markets are areas that require “immediate urgency,” Warner said. “There’s a group of us thinking about some of those items.” Ranking member Marco Rubio, R-Fla., told us he wants to examine what the technology means for national security, defense and cybersecurity.
The Senate's 55-43 confirmation Thursday of Democrat Anna Gomez to the FCC (see 2309070052) will soon end the 2-2 partisan tie at the commission that has lasted more than two years into President Joe Biden's term. Agency watchers and former insiders expect a flurry of activity, with Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel issuing and launching long-bottled-up orders and proceedings once Gomez formally becomes a commissioner.
Microsoft announced its support Wednesday for privacy legislation being considered in Pennsylvania. TechNet told a House Commerce Committee hearing that legislators should tweak the bill to mirror a privacy law passed in Connecticut (see 2205110049).
Five major US tech companies are "gatekeepers" subject to the EU Digital Markets Act (DMA), the European Commission said Wednesday. It designated 22 core platform services provided by Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, ByteDance, Meta and Microsoft, saying the companies have six months to bring the platform services into compliance with the act. The services involved are social media, intermediation, ads, messaging, video-sharing, browsers, search and operating systems. Several platforms said they will work toward compliance. ByteDance criticized the decision.